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Inspired by the people, artists, and heritage of a great city, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra (LO) under the direction of Music Director Christopher Wilkins, and Executive Director Jo Frances Meyer announce its 2016 season of free concerts at the DCR’s Hatch Shell at the Esplanade.

“Universal access and summertime fun lie at the heart of all Boston Landmarks Orchestra programs. Children, families, cultural organizations, and first-time concertgoers all have an important role to play,” says Wilkins. “The 2016 season is also the most interactive in our history, as members of our community are active participants in almost every program.”

Executive Director Jo Frances Meyer added, “our 2015 season was so extraordinary in every way that I confess I was having a hard time imagining how 2016 could possibly be as good or better. My worries, however, were misplaced. Our incomparably creative Music Director Christopher Wilkins has outdone himself in planning a 2016 season that promises to be every bit as imaginative, inspiring, artistically excellent and inclusive as any season yet.”

Free Hatch Shell concerts are held every Wednesday evening (7 p.m.) from July 13 through August 31, 2016. Partner organizations for the 2016 season include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Back Bay Chorale, and the HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands. LO brings smaller, more intimate concerts to several Greater Boston neighborhoods, including Pinebank Promontory in Jamaica Plain (July 10; 6 p.m.) and others to be announced.

Youth focused programming this season includes a pop-inspired composition performed by young ‘All Stars’ from East Boston’s ZUMIX, under the guidance of 2016 composer-in-residence, Gonzalo Grau. Young performers from Camp Harbor View, Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, North End Music and Performing Arts Center, and Conservatory Lab Charter School perform alongside the orchestra’s members, who are among the leading professional musicians in New England.

Music of the wilds and the countryside. Tan Dun’s Secret of Wind and Birds mimics sounds and colors found in nature, incorporating birdsong activated by audience members on their cell phones. Michael Gandolfi’s tribute to a garden in Scotland follows a tradition first established by Respighi, who introduced recorded birdsong into concert music in 1924 with his brilliant Respighi Pines of Rome. Rain date: July 14; Kresge Auditorium at MIT is the rain location for July 14

Vaughan Williams – The Wasps Overture

Tan Dun – Secret of Wind and Birds

Copland – Music for Movies

Gandolfi – The Garden of Cosmic Speculation – Part I

Respighi – The Pines of Rome

JULY 20

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor

In partnership with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Co-hosted by Peggy Fogelman, director

Peggy Fogelman, Director of the Gardner Museum, co-hosts an evening honoring the life and passions of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Highlights from the museum’s collection and images from the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA-projected above the orchestra-are shown in coordination with the music. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is performed in Ravel’s masterful orchestration. Rain Date July 21; Kresge Auditorium at MIT is the rain location for July 21.

Sung – Rockwell Reflections

Mussorgsky/Ravel – Pictures at an Exhibition

Offenbach – Intermezzo and Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffman

Coolidge – Isabella

Loeffler – Divertissement espagnole

Falla – Spanish Dance No. 1 from La vida breve

JULY 27

VERDI & VALKYRIES

Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor

Jane Eaglen, soprano, One City Choir, Back Bay Chorale (Scott Allen Jarrett, music director) and the North End Music and Performing Arts Children’s Choir.

One of the greatest dramatic singers of her generation, Jane Eaglen, soprano, headlines a powerhouse program. Highlights from Wagner’s Ring include The Ride of the Valkyries and the dramatic final scene of the cycle. The stirring Anvil Chorus precedes the New England premiere of a major work by Verdi, Libera me, which five years later he transformed into the dramatic conclusion of the Requiem. Rain date: July 28; Kresge Auditorium at MIT is the rain location for July 28.

This evening we give the orchestra a well-deserved night off, and screen the classic 1949 movie musical On the Town, starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Ann Miller. The film is based on the 1944 Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein-inspired by his ballet Fancy Free, which Landmarks Orchestra performs on August 17. Hit songs such as ‘New York, New York’ and Kelly’s iconic dancing are among the highlights. Pack your picnic for an old-school Hollywood musical film under the stars. No rain date.

AUGUST 10

LANDMARKS LOLLAPALOOZA

Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor

Jayne West, soprano

In partnership with ZUMIX, Longy Summer Academy, and members of the HONK! Festival

An open-air festival of sundry styles and celebrated classics. Musical treats from Gershwin to Adams to Grieg accompany the great Fifth Symphony of Tchaikovsky. All-Stars from East Boston’s ZUMIX unveil their new pop-inspired creation. The night comes to a fitting close in collaboration with the one-and-only HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands. Rain date: August 11/Rain location for August 11 TBA

Movers and shakers from across the city converge on the Esplanade for a celebration of American and international dance. Leonard Bernstein’s Fancy Free takes pride of place in an original interpretation by Yo-El Cassell and Boston-based performers. The youth from area Boys and Girls Clubs will “shake the Shell” along with outstanding companies of Armenian and Latin American dancers. Rain location for August 17 TBA.

Rodgers – On Your Toes: “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue”

Skalkottas – Greek Dances

Needham – Urban Sprawl

Grau – Dance for Orchestra (world premiere)

Avetisyan – Festive Armenia (arr. Roustom)

Traditional – Vasbouragan (arr. Roustom)

Edwards/Greene – New Work (world premiere)

Bernstein – Fancy Free

AUGUST 24

LONGWOOD SYMPHONY

Longwood Symphony Orchestra | Ronald Feldman, Music Director

The annual performance at the Hatch Shell by Boston’s medical community orchestra, always an innovator in programming and community engagement. Promoting music as a healing art, the Longwood Symphony serves the Greater Boston area through performances and programming related to their professions. No rain date.

Mozart – The Magic Flute Overture

Kaska – The Wizard of Menlo Park

Dvořák – Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’

AUGUST 31

Rodgers and Hart’s The Boys from Syracuse

A Concert Performance-with music and dance

In collaboration with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company | Steven Maler, director |

Yo-El Cassell, choreographer

A landmark Broadway musical from the swing era is reborn on the Esplanade. The Boys from Syracuse, based on Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, is often considered the finest of all Rodgers and Hart creations. Familiar songs include ‘Falling in Love with Love,’ ‘Sing for Your Supper,’ and ‘This Can’t Be Love.’ This ‘concert performance with dancing’ marks only the 2nd professional performance of the inimitable big-band style original 1938 orchestrations.Rain date: September 1; Rain location for September 1 TBA.

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra was founded in 2001 by conductor and community advocate Charles Ansbacher. The orchestra is comprised of many of the area’s finest professional musicians. In its earliest years, the orchestra performed in such historically important settings as Fenway Park, the USS CONSTITUTION pier, Jamaica Pond, Franklin Park, Copley Square, Boston Common, and other landmark locations. Since 2007, its principal home has been at the DCR’s Hatch Memorial Shell. For more history visit http://www.landmarksorchestra.org/About.html.

These programs are supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Counciland the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.